IK Multimedia’s SampleTank has been a great choice as a software sampler for more than 13 years. It’s always been easy to learn, easy to operate, and came with a great library; and several great expansion modules gave it even more versatility. Now, IK has released version 3 of SampleTank. I installed it on my Mac to take it for an extended spin in my studio. PC is also supported; formats include Audio Units, VST, VST 3, AAX, and standalone.

SampleTank 3 has been fully redesigned with a new user interface, new mixer, creative effects, and more. The package comes with over 33GB of samples. I didn’t count them all, but according to IK, that includes 4,000 instruments in 21 instrument categories, 2,500 rhythm loops, and 2,000 MIDI files. The arsenal is complete: acoustic and electronic drums, acoustic and electric pianos, basses, organs, guitars, a wide range of orchestral instruments, synth leads and pads, special effects, percussion, vocal instruments; it’s all there. You can easily assemble an ensemble for any genre and create release-quality productions.

If you want to go beyond the included instruments, editing is a breeze in SampleTank 3. You can quickly dial in the changes you want and customize the response and tone of instruments easily. You can twist and turn sounds using powerful pitch shift and time stretch capabilities as well as resample sounds. Ten filter types are available, and each instrument gets eight “macro” controls for fast adjustments on the fly. You can also quickly and easily create splits and layered instruments.

Then, there is the new mixer. Each instrument (16 multitimbral parts can be loaded on separate MIDI channels) gets a channel in the mixer. You can add five insert effects per channel and also route to parallel effects using aux sends and four stereo returns (which can also have five insert effects each). The stereo master outs also support five insert effects. Fifty-five analog-modeled AmpliTube and digital effects are included.

You can, of course, play SampleTank 3 using any MIDI source and sequence MIDI parts for SampleTank using your DAW. But SampleTank 3 can also play back MIDI files — up to 128 MIDI patterns for each multitimbral part. This is especially useful when SampleTank 3 is running standalone. And, you can export SampleTank’s MIDI files into your DAW. Pretty cool.

The word for SampleTank 3 is “fast.” SampleTank 3 utilizes 64-bit architecture, so it can take full advantage of the RAM in your computer to load large sounds (and lots of them) and to operate efficiently. This pays huge dividends when you take SampleTank 3 onstage for a live gig. This is where the fast loading and ability to have a set list worth of instruments and effects preloaded comes in handy. There’s even a “Live” tab in the software that’s designed specifically to facilitate performance onstage.

If you’re looking for a killer sampled library driven by a powerful synth engine that operates efficiently and loads quickly, with tons of effects and processing capabilities, then SampleTank 3 deserves your attention. Pile on the MIDI file playback and other extras, and you’ve got a package that rocks both stage and studio.

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